Russell Wiese talks international trade at Interlaw Singapore

Open to an invited audience of clients and guest speakers, lawyers will join together in Singapore to discuss the theme "South East Asia - opportunities and challenges of economic integration" on 5 to 8 February 2015.

Customs Global Trade Partner, Russell Wiese will offer insight to how a trade lawyer can work with importers and exporters to overcome the challenges posed by using free trade agreements.

"In recent years we have seen a great increase in the number of free trade agreements entered into by various countries," said Wiese.

"One of the goals of these agreements is to liberalise international trade of goods, which generally means reduce duties. Unfortunately, utilisation of these agreements by exporters is often less than 50% due to a combination of their complexity and the compliance risk of incorrect use," added Wiese.

Rather than primarily having an adversarial role in the context of customs audits, there is a new proactive role for lawyers to help clients manage the complexities associated with FTA's and in the process to facilitate international trade.